9th-12th October: Trekking to Machu Picchu

One of the main reasons for coming to Peru was to make the epic trek to Machu Picchu. We have just returned from the four day adventure and it was indeed epic. We arrived in Cuzco a couple of days before the trek to acclimatise to the altitude (3400m)...but were still sufffering from altitude sickness when we set off despite drinking copious amounts of the local brew - coca tea - which helps with the headaches, shortness of breath etc. This coupled with pouring rain made the first day of hiking uphill pretty hard work. After 7 hours of walking we camped the night and were relieved to find that our sleeping bags were still dry! Day two dawned brighter with no rain and little enough cloud that we had our first views of the majestic mountain ranges surrounding us. That put all 17 of our trekking party in a much better frame of mind. Our trail took us through isolated mountain communities (some over 4200m) where people still live as they have for many hundreds of years in single room mud houses with thatched roofs with nothing like running water, electricity or bathrooms. The men farm the hillsides where only small potatoes will grow and keep llama and alpaca (I still can't exactly tell the difference after seeing hundreds of the creatures over the past few days). We were greeted along that path by lots of children all excited to see us - mostly because they were hoping for a sweet or pencils or some small gift that we had brought to thank them for allowing us to walk through their world. It was quite incredible how simply these people live and with such dignity. This second day was the hardest physically as we climbed over two mountain passes, one of 4200m and the other 4500m. Chris and I were both still feeling the effects of the altitude and were extremely glad to finally puff and blow our way over the second pass. It was a great sense of achievement to arrive at the camp at the end of that day. We awoke on the third day to clear blue skies, frost and a beautiful rising sun, to views of snow-capped mountains and herds of alpaca/llama around us. The sun warmed the air so quickly that we were able to eat breakfast outside (one of Chris' favourite things to do) before setting off for the last full day of hiking - now all downhill into the sacred valley of the Incas. On day four we awoke at 430am to get to Machu Picchu before sunrise. It is indeed a mysterious place, set high among mountains with precipitous drops on all sides, it was completely shrouded in cloud and mist when we arrived. Throughout the first few hours this mist would lift and clear to reveal the ancient city then settle again. I can definitely understand why the Incas decided to build this city among these mountains in order to be closer to heaven.

One of the themes of this trip for me (K) has definitely been to face up to my fear of heights. Getting to and from Machu Picchu involves an extremely steep journey which we did by bus with me praying the whole way that the brakes would hold and that the bus would not fall off the cliff! And once again there was the opportunity to climb up a steep mountain to get an incredible view down over the ruins. The top of the mountain was reached by a trail of steep steps with drops on all sides. Chris and various of the gang were very keen to do the climb but I was trying to avoid it all morning...having had a tearful panic when Chris tried to get me to stand beside him for a photo ever so close to the edge of a many thousand foot drop! The dizziness I had been feeling cleared a little so I decided to attempt the climb since I figured that even if I only got half way I would still have an amazing view. The climb was so physical that my pounding heart and watching where I was putting my feet consumed my concentration sufficiently that I managed to get to the top. Again, it was worth it for the magnificent view now bathed in sunlight. Perhaps I am another step closer to not being so petrified of heights?!